I've been lucky enough to use my sister's SX50HS a few times in recent weeks. I was pleasantly surprised by the snappyness of its AF and the effectiveness of the IS when taking video at the longer end of the zoom range. The image quality at lower ISO's isn't bad, it works well with Canon flashes and it has an EVF.

My regular camera is the 5D3 with either the 24-105 or the 100-400 depending on what I am shooting. My favourite compact is the 5D3 with the 40mm pancake! Seriously! There are two compacts languishing in the cupboard. I have not used them since I got the 5D3. And yes, it does not fit in the pocket, but the clarity is so much better, I don't use the other compacts at all!

The EOS-M - for two reasons - superior IQ, and even more because it has a real user interface. It's an EOS - you can pull it out of the box and be familiar with 99% of it's functions without reading the manual. After years of digging through insanely crappy menu systems (Sony and Panasonic ), and looking for advanced features (1/60-1/200s flash sync) that didn't exist (Canon compacts), it's perfect.

You can quibble about a million things with it (all compacts suck in one way or another), but it's cheap right now and for Canon users, it's just like picking up your SLR.

+ 1,000 For me too, Dear CarlTN and mackguyver.After I have 1 week, I fell in love with this Tiny EOS-M----Yes, Now I can do with out 20D, 7D, 5D MK II, and 1DS,Yes--I can do 80% of the Big Brothers functions from EOS-M and plus I can put This EOS-M in my Jacket's Pocket too.Surapon

PS, Yes, I have Olympus FE 300, Canon SX 160 IS too, Both of them are great companion, before my new toy EOS-M come.PS-2 = The Cheap Belt bag( from Office Max = $ 19 US Dollars) for 1 day trip

If the EOS M fell to around $200 I would consider it...but the only lens I have that would probably work on it without an adaptor is the 40mm pancake. Might not even work on it, I don't know. That's the only lens that would make it relatively pocketable...but I don't want to be limited to one lens, that is a prime.

You still need the adapter and that would definitely not be pocketable. Even with the EF-M 22mm, it's not terribly pocketable.

I'm betting that the S120 is probably the best overall compact camera right now in terms of small size, good IQ, usable menus, features, and price given all of the compromises one naturally has with small cameras. I haven't used one, but it's supposed to the faster than the S110 which was a pretty good little camera when I tried it.

for me there is/was no alternative.all the system cameras (m43, fuji etc.) are not really pocketable.

i thought about the GM1. that one has a small body.. but with lens it´s still to big.

The body on the GX1 is even smaller than the GM1, it costs a lot less, and the image quality is likely similar. If I was going to blow $750 on a small camera, I'd be rich enough to just buy several Leicas and call it a day.